a blog by Montee Wellman

Always Stay Humble and Kind

The other day I was scrolling through Instagram and a post by Jimmy Don Holmes of HGTV’s ‘Fixer Upper’ fame caught my eye. He had posted a photo of his newest metal sign creation, “Always stay humble and kind.” I already own one of his signs, hanging in my hallway back home in Chattanooga among the vintage black and white family photos, and I do believe I’ll order this newest one for our apartment when we get to San Antonio for baseball season. It’s always nice to have a little reminder staring you in the face especially in this world, and in the this baseball lifestyle that we find ourselves in.

Humility is a modest or low view of one’s importance. Kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Yes, the two go hand in hand. How can you be truly kind without being humble first? Sadly, sometimes people are “kind” because it’s a way to manipulate for their own good, or promote themselves. I meet some wonderful people across this country during our baseball travels, and some that aren’t so wonderful. Those who are not so nice are few and far between. However, it seems in this day and age that more and more, being humble is going the way of the dinosaur and it’s taking kindness right along with it. There is a lot of self promotion going on. There is a lot of competition to be the best, or in your own eyes, the best. Being the best isn’t about how many “Likes” you may get on Social Media and getting a thrill from it (Social Media itself is very often “Fake News” because no one’s life is perfection), but being the best for God depends on what lies in your heart and how you carry yourself by being humble and kind in a one-on-one setting. Humbling yourself to love others through kindness, putting someone else’s feelings before yours, placing jealousy and covetousness aside, this is what we as Christians are called to do. Jesus did. Good golly, He is the Son of God and look at what He did. All of us are less than He, and He humbled Himself to walk among us, to heal the sick both physically and spiritually. Then He humbled Himself to hang on The Cross for us all.

One of the greatest passages in the Bible is a conversation between Jesus and one of the religious leaders who were questioning Him. It’s found in Matthew 12:28-31–

28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”

29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’This is the first commandment.[31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

God places us where He needs us to be. You may make it to the “Big Show” or you may never make it out of “Rookie Ball.” In either case we can express arrogance and just plain meanness, or we can express humility and love. We may or may not like the position we are in or the people He places us with, but stop and try to think about it through God’s eyes for a second. The Good Lord rewards us when we use the best He’s given us with humility. On the other hand, He may (or usually does) give us a lesson in humility by seeing how we behave with what we are given, and then knocking us down a peg or two if we become too arrogant. He may place us in an uncomfortable position with an individual or among a group we don’t really care for, but it’s likely with someone who needs our humble kindness and love. You never know what blessings you or others could receive if you just keep it humble, and keep it kind.